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Wooden plenum for unconditioned air?

Owner has installed a "whole house" exhaust system for the second-floor consisting of a wooden "plenum"containing an exhaust fan and connected intake lines running from a return grill in each room and exhausting to the interior of the attic (where, hopefully is in turn exhausting through passive vents installed or the ridge).

1) A violation of the rules against combustible ductwork used for environmental air?

2) No different from a joists space headed off to install a conventional whole-house ceiling exhaust fan?

Re: Wooden plenum for unconditioned air?

Whether it is 'allowed' or not would be my secondary concern. My more immediate concerns would be.
- potential overheating and fire potential for a motor sealed in a wood box in an attic, what kind of motor and is it rated for such an enclosure, is it properly wired, is there any reasonable way to access it, etc
- potential contaminant build-up on the wood and creep back into the occupancy space when the motor isn't running, presumably most of the winter
- what does this say about the temps up on the 2nd floor, if the owner did this, I'm guessing no AC or crappy AC install and it gets boiling hot up there.
- house depressurization concerns

www.aic-chicago.com
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